[Editor’s note: Looking for information on Facebook’s most recent privacy updates? See our new guide to Facebook’s privacy settings. Read below for tips on other things you can do to keep yourself secure on the social networking site. ]
With over 66 million active users and almost a quarter of a million new people signing each day, Facebook is one of the fastest growing social networking sites in the United States. Unfortunately, many of the features that make Facebook a great social network also opened Facebook users to a variety of identity theft related crimes.
NextAdvisor.com has compiled a list of 6 simple tips in our Facebook Identity Theft Prevention Guide below. The purpose of this guide is to help raise awareness of identity theft risks related to use Facebook as well as providing some steps that Facebook users can take to protect themselves from being a victim of identity thieves.
Tip # 1 :. Limit the amount of personal information available on your Facebook profile
A recent survey of Facebook users commissioned by NextAdvisor.com found that 27% of interviewees is their full name, date of birth, number telephone and e-mail address on their Facebook profile. A further 8% of respondents included all this information and their physical address on their profile. Many Facebook users also list other personal data such as their spouse or the name or date of birth of significant other. This type of personal information is extremely dangerous in the hands of identity thieves because it can be used to commit various forms of identity theft.
For example, an identity thief may be able to use your address and phone number to submit a change of address form with the United States Postal Service and have your mail forwarded. This would allow an identity thief to access more sensitive information that would allow them to open financial accounts or others on your behalf.
The information may also be used by identity thieves to help savvy to hack into online accounts for contextual information in your profile can switch off the name and password that you can use potential users. Once an online account, whether e-mail, credit card or other account has been accessed, it can be used to cause even more harm. In such an example of this type of identity theft a student used information from the Facebook profile page of another student to access their account and Apple.com for more products $ 1,000.
Our recommendation is to limit the amount of personal information that is available on your Facebook profile. Specifically:
- Never list your full date of birth, phone number or physical address on your Facebook profile. Your true friends and associates probably already know this information to include on your profile will only increase your risk of falling victim to identity thieves.
- Limit the amount of contextual clues password on your profile pages. Identity thieves know that many people use their birthday, spouse, or a name or date of birth of significant other, an anniversary, the maiden name of mother, pet's name or other personal information such as passwords on their personal accounts. It is also a good idea to make sure your online passwords do not include these types of personal items, as they are easily hacked.
Tip # 2 :. Proactively manage your Facebook privacy settings
[see our new guide to privacy settings of Facebook to get information updates]
Because Facebook is a social networking site, it is configured by default to make it very easy for others to find you. For example, Facebook allows users to join networks that are groups of people who share a common trait to have attended the same school or live in a certain metropolitan area. This means that if you join the network in the city you live in all other members of the city based network will have access to your profile information. This means that potentially hundreds or thousands (or more) foreigners have automatically direct access to your profile.
The good news is that Facebook gives users a lot of control over their implementation in the "My Privacy" section of the privacy site. This can be achieved by clicking on the "Privacy" link in the upper right corner of every page on the Facebook site. From inside the privacy section that you have full control of all your privacy settings and can refine that will have access to what parts of your profile and your activity on the Facebook site.
Section: Profile
suggested Privacy Settings:
- Select "Only Friends" in the menus . drop for each item This will ensure that only people you have explicitly approved adding friends have access to your personal profile information
section. Search
suggested Privacy Settings:
- Under "What are Facebook users can find me looking" ?? select "Only friends. " As in the above point, this will ensure that only people you have already approved can find you through the Facebook search function.
- Uncheck the box under "Create my public search list ??." This will prevent Facebook to publish a public version of your profile will be listed in search engines such as Google or Yahoo.
Section: News Feed and Mini Feed
suggested Privacy Settings:
- Clear the boxes for the items you do not want published to all your friends. It is up to you as a user, but it is better not to publish any items that may expose personal information somehow.
- Uncheck "Show time in my mini-feed ??." This will eliminate the time and date stamp of all mini-feed elements that you decide to publish publicly. This is a good step to prevent people to monitor your usage of Facebook and know when you might be or have been online.
Section: Poke, message and friend Request
suggested Privacy Settings:
- nothing
- We suggest not to expose other than "Basic info" on your outgoing pokes, messages or friend requests. So leave this box checked and uncheck the remaining boxes. This will give the recipients of limited information from your profile page until they became a friend.
Section: Applications and announcements
suggested Privacy Settings:
- This section allows you remove applications that you have added earlier. No adjustment necessary updates privacy applications are governed by the privacy settings you defined in the "Profile" section of
Section "My Privacy". external Sites
suggested Privacy Settings:
- unknown to many users, Facebook has the ability to track and publish information the actions you take on some major third-party web sites (this is their controversial Beacon program.) If you do not want this information, as the purchases you make, shared with anyone, check the "do not allow all websites to send stories to my profile ??. "
Keep in mind that it is very easy to provide better access to people, such as friends and family , over time, but it may be impossible to go back ?? if a piece of personal information inadvertently exposed to the bad parts. For this reason, we recommend that Facebook users have the most conservative approach possible to their personal privacy settings.
Tip 3 :. Only accept applications from persons of friends you know
According to another recent survey commissioned by Facebook NextAdvisor.com, 49% of respondents said they accept some or all friend requests they receive from people they do not know. What many Facebook users may not realize is that by accepting applications for those friends they do not know that they are potentially open to identity theft or related crimes. In general, we suggest that Facebook users accept friend requests from people they already know or whose identity they can verify by other means. Here are some ways to add safely new friends on Facebook:
- When you receive a friend request from someone you already know verify they are who they say that they are emailing them or giving them a call phone. It's easy for someone to set up a phony profile under the name of someone you know and trust to extract additional information from you.
- If you do not recognize the person who is the friend request do not hesitate to ask them how they know you before you accept their friend request using the "send a message" in Facebook. If they do not, or if their response seems suspicious, you can study more or simply ignore their friend request.
- Some experts believe that social networks like Facebook can become the next target of scams by sophisticated phishing designed to steal your online passwords or other personal information. If you receive a friend request or other information claiming to be from Facebook by e-mail, it is a good idea to connect to your Facebook account directly compared by clicking on the links in the e-mail to verify that communication is coming to reality in the Facebook system.
Tip # 4 :. Limit the amount of "time and place" of the data you expose through Facebook
Facebook offers users many opportunities to spread their time and place of their friends network ??. Whether an update status or single detailed itinerary, criminals can use information about your current location or to come to victimize you in a number of ways.
For example, if you publicly announce that you'll be out of town for vacation or your plans to attend an event, such as an event or sports concert, criminals can use this information to determine when your home may be more susceptible to burglary. This could open up a number of forms of identity theft or worse.
In general, we strongly recommend that users of Facebook do not publish details about your location and schedule.
Tip 5 :. Remember that even people you may know identity thieves
Unfortunately, several recent studies show that a significant number of identity theft victims know the person who victim.
Javelin Research found that shocking 17% of identity theft crimes are committed by people known to the victim, such as friends or family members. In addition, a recent study by the credit bureau Experian found that 55% of identity theft perpetrated against children were committed by someone known to the victim.
We strongly recommend that even if you feel as if all your Facebook friends are people you know and trust you always follow all the tips above to keep you from falling victim to Facebook flight ID.
Tip # 6 :. Consider a protection service against identity theft
Identity theft, both online and in the real world, remains a growing threat to all Americans. We recommend that all consumers consider using a proactive identity theft protection services such as LifeLock Identity Guard or to protect their identity.
Each service protection against identity theft is different, but most will be :.
- fraud alerts Set with the major credit bureaus so that new accounts can not be opened in your name without your knowledge
- provide insurance against theft identity that will reimburse the fees and expenses you incur as a result of being a victim.
- provide you with copies of your credit report.
You can learn about the various benefits of protective services against identity theft and learn more about the specific services that we examined by visiting our guide and comparison services protection against identity theft.
While social networks like Facebook can be fun and productive services, it is important that users are aware of the risks they pose. We believe that taking proactive steps to protect your identity on Facebook will only improve the amount of fun you can have on the service.
We hope that the advice we provide is helpful and informative. We would really like to hear if you have any additional comments or advice on how to protect yourself on Facebook, another social network or the Internet in general. Please leave tips in the comments below.